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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23761441">Give A Little Love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/undeadinside/pseuds/undeadinside'>undeadinside</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Assassination Classroom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, F/M, fuwa still breaks the fourth wall blatantly, there's cursing so thats a thing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:35:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,858</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23761441</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/undeadinside/pseuds/undeadinside</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Yuzuki Fuwa, college graduate, is working part-time at a coffee shop downtown while she tries to get her career as a mangaka off the ground. Hinano Kurahashi, college graduate, is living the dream. Her nature tour business is excelling, until a horrible accident forces her out of a job, and, a few months later, out of a hospital. She goes to a coffee shop to try to figure things out, and runs into an old friend, who Hinano finds much prettier than before..?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akabane Karma/Okuda Manami, Fuwa Yuzuki/Kurahashi Hinano</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Yuzuki Fuwa Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Okay so this is the first chapter of a Fuwa/Kurahashi fic I'm writing. I don't have a name for it so any names you guys wanna suggest, put them in the comments. Also, just comment stuff and all that.</p><p>Edit: This fic has a name now. The title is taken from the song "Give A Little Love" by Noah And The Whale.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Hello, may I take your order?” Yuzuki Fuwa asked the customer on the other side of the counter. She stood there attentively, waiting for a response from the elderly man across from her. As she waited, she took stock of the things that surrounded her. A small, bustling coffee shop a few blocks from the hustle and bustle of the city where she lived and went to school. It had been seven years since Korosensei’s assassination. Korosensei. The creature that had profoundly changed all their lives. She was grateful for his impact on her life and the lives of her E-Class compatriots and friends. Wow, Yuzuki thought. She hadn’t talked to any of her E-Class friends in a while. She should really call Rio or Hinata, check in on how they’re all doing. So, she elected to make a call to Rio after work. A voice snapped her out of her thoughts.<br/>
“...Are you even listening? I said I wanted black coffee, extra cream! Seriously, how inept can you be?” the elderly man in front of her shouted. Yuzuki had to put on a fake smile and laugh, because she really didn’t want to put up with this man’s rudeness any longer than she had to.<br/>
“Sorry. Yes, on it!” Yuzuki shouted the order to one of her coworkers, one Katsuzou Tamura, with much more force than intended.<br/>
“Sheesh, Fuwa. Calm down. Customers are gonna be assholes sometimes.” Tamura said. Tamura was a whole head taller than Yuzuki, with choppy auburn hair tied into a loose bun. The two, with the help of a young girl, who couldn’t be older than middle-school age, whom Yuzuki found familiar for some reason, served the man and the rest of the customers with surprising teamwork for a group of people who had only known each other for two months. Eventually, though, the work day was finished, and the sun was beginning to set. Yuzuki checked her watch, and noticed that it was 7pm. If Rio was in New York, then it would be much too early to call her. So, Yuzuki decided, she’d call Hinata. She hadn’t talked with her in a while, so figured she’d call Hinata, ask about the upcoming gymnastics tournament, catch up, and most importantly, start planning some more details for a reunion in a few months’ time. She hadn’t seen most of her E-Class friends in person for ages, and was dying to catch up with them. She started closing up with Tamura in silence for a while, before Tamura’s voice cut through the silence.<br/>
“You seemed super stressed today, Fuwa. Everything alright?” Tamura asked, looking over her shoulder towards the woman.<br/>
“Yeah! I’m fine. Just a little worried.” Yuzuki replied.<br/>
“‘Bout what?” came the reply, now from the other side of the counter.<br/>
“Just my future. I’ve been here for a while now, but-” Yuzuki was cut off by the voice of the other girl working with them.<br/>
“Look, stop worrying about your future! There are more things you’ve got to worry about! You’re a fully grown adult! Sheesh! Shouldn’t you be worried about, I don’t know, getting married, or, like, paying rent or something? If you’re out of college, you should already know where you’re going! Wow.” The girl’s brash attitude surprised Yuzuki, and then, faintly, she remembered who the girl working with them was. She never caught her name, but looking back to her time with Class 3-E, realized this was the girl that Nagisa had tutored.<br/>
“...What’s your name again? I forgot.” Yuzuki asked.<br/>
“Sakura Kiyashiki! And how don’t you know it? We’ve worked together for two months!” Sakura said.<br/>
“Well, Kiyashiki, I don’t have things all figured out. I want to be a mangaka, but there aren’t really any college courses for that, are there?” Yuzuki retorted.<br/>
“Can you two calm down? This isn’t a grudge fest or whatever you’re trying to make it. Fuwa, you could probably take some creative writing courses or art courses or something, and if you’re that worried about it, then start getting something on paper. Kiyashiki, Fuwa is nearly a decade older than you. She probably knows more about the world than you, show her some respect.” Tamura glared at both of them sternly, before chuckling, and going back to her work.<br/>
“...Sorry.” Sakura muttered under her breath.<br/>
“Thanks. Anyways, how’s school going? Still getting tutored by Nagisa?” Yuzuki asked, leaning against the counter looking at Sakura, who was stocking ingredients for the next day. Sakura’s expression was one of surprise and confusion, before she looked at Yuzuki intensely for a while, then her face lit up with a spark of recognition.<br/>
“Oh my god! You were one of those kids who helped out Mr. Matsukata’s school! How could I forget you!”<br/>
“I’m a side character. I don’t get a lot of screen time compared to other people, usually. Not in this fanfiction, though. I’m one of the main characters.” Yuzuki replied.<br/>
“What… what the fuck?” Sakura responded. “Am I hearing you right?”<br/>
“Maybe. Anyways, what was I saying before this?” Yuzuki replied.<br/>
“You were asking about how my school is going, and tutoring, and all that. School is going okay. I’m actually still getting tutored by Nagisa. Mostly in math, though. I’m kind of struggling with that. He’s honestly a really good teacher. Like, the way that he can just tell that I’m super stressed about something, and he just does the thing where he puts his finger on my neck and I just get calm, like, wow, that’s amazing!” Sakura gushed.<br/>
“I know what you mean. Anyways, did you know that he’s actually a full-fledged teacher now?” Yuzuki replied, clearly glad to not talk about her future.<br/>
“Wait, really?! Oh my god! What school does he teach at! I have to go to it next year. Wait, he teaches at a high school, right? Please tell me he does.” Sakura was grinning at this point, and eagerly awaiting a response.<br/>
“Last I heard, he’s teaching at Gokuraku Municipal. Maybe it’s changed since then. Not sure.” Yuzuki replied. “Anyways, I gotta head back to my apartment. You need a ride?”<br/>
“No, I’m getting picked up pretty soon. Thanks for offering, though,” Sakura replied. “Anyways, you wanna be a mangaka? I’m sure you’ll be a fine one.” Then, Sakura sat outside of the shop at a bench, and got on a call with someone, leaving just her and Tamura in the shop’s main.<br/>
“So, do you and her go back, or is there something I’m missing here?” Tamura asked.<br/>
“We go back. I met her once on a school-to-school thing, when I was in middle school, but…” Yuzuki trailed off. I have to be careful, she thought. I can’t let her know about what actually happened, even if she’s nowhere close to the truth right now. The government would be pissed if I leaked anything.<br/>
“You went to Kunugigaoka, right, Fuwa? Wasn’t that a super elite school? Why would a school like that waste its time with, what, how old would Kiyashiki have been, a first grader? I don’t know. Like, if it was super elitist and all that shit, wouldn’t it have spent time with training you to be, uh, fuckin’ corporate overlords and that shit?” Tamura was digging into Fuwa now, she knew she had hit a platinum mine of information.<br/>
“We…” Yuzuki thought for a second. She’s as good of an investigator as I am, she’d know if I was lying. So, I should tell the truth. Not the whole truth, obviously. Maybe just a part of it. “Some of my friends ended up knocking over an old guy on a bike, who was actually the principal for the school. He didn’t end up getting a lot of funds, so the school was pretty run-down. As punishment for being… irresponsible with things we learned in class, our teacher made us help the students and manage everything, since the principal was in the hospital for that time. It was two weeks before end-of-term exams, and we were also banned from studying for that time, to help make the punishment more effective-”<br/>
“Wow. Your teacher must've been awful. Banning you from studying for end-of-terms in an elitist school like that? Sheesh.” Tamura noted. “Anyways, I’m gonna head home. Gotta feed my dog.” And just like that, Tamura left the building, leaving Yuzuki alone. She sighed in relief that Tamura was gone, and hoped silently to herself that she wouldn’t press the subject any further. And Yuzuki hoped, she prayed with all her heart, that Tamura didn’t look any further into Kunugigaoka’s history- especially the assassination plot of Korosensei. She didn’t want Tamura to think that she was dangerous- well, she was, to an extent, they all were, but she wouldn’t just go on a killing spree or anything. But she didn’t have to worry about that right now, Tamura was gone.<br/>
Yuzuki got in her car, and, leaning to the left side of the car, opened the glove box and pulled out a notebook and a pen, and took Kiyashiki’s advice and just jotted some stuff down. Just scribbles and random annotations here and there, but Yuzuki was glad to get something down on paper. She could work out the fine details of the plot and characters later, but she decided she wanted to make it a fantasy manga, like someone she had seen with swords or something, where the main character was super overpowered. She hated it, because it didn’t really have much tension. So there would be a lot of main characters. Not, like, fifty, but like maybe half that. She wasn’t sure yet. But she could workshop it later; she needed to get home and eat dinner. She got in her car, and after a while, parked in the parking lot of the apartment building she lived in. She walked up a few flights of stairs, before stopping on the fourth floor, at a door marked ‘623’ and turned a key in its lock, opening and closing it quickly. The purple-haired girl made a beeline for her fridge, opening it and poring over its contents, before settling on a green curry that she had gotten as take-out a few days before, and, emptying it into a bowl, consumed its contents with voracious speed. She was very hungry. She sat on the sofa that doubled as her bed, and turned on her television, turning to the local news. Apparently a new company was moving into town next week. Interesting. She would have to check them out. Then, after falling asleep on the couch, she woke up at what seemed like 1 in the morning because she got a text. Reading it, she immediately got very worried.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Edit: This Fanfiction Has A Name.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Clean Slate Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hinano Kurahashi has some godawful luck.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It took me a while to find a good stopping point for this chapter, so I just stopped it abruptly. By the way, perspective is generally going to alternate between Fuwa and Kurahashi. I hope you like the second chapter!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Hinano checked her watch. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Huh, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she thought to herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Where did that kid run off to?</span>
  </em>
  <span> She was taking a group of kids older than the usual age range on a tour, whereas most of the kids she took on nature tours were three to five, this group that was touring was older, generally seven to eight, with the oldest kid being twelve. She was looking for the youngest kid, who, after having talked with the oldest kid, had run off into a part of the campus backwoods. Now, she knew those woods as if she had lived there all her life, so she knew the spots he would probably go to. But she couldn’t just leave these kids unattended. So she was stuck. But she had to make a decision quickly, so she turned to the kids.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stay here, alright? I’m going to look for your friend, but you all have to </span>
  <em>
    <span>stay here</span>
  </em>
  <span>, alright?” Hinano asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, miss!” one of the kids said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay! This is very important! I don’t want any more of you getting lost!” And with that, Hinano tapped into the assassination skills she had been taught so many years ago, leaping into a tree, before looking back at the kids one more time, their faces aglow with expressions of shock and admiration. She ran and jumped from tree to tree, her gaze alternating between the ground and where she was landing next. The branches cracked under her feet as she made her way around the mountainside. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Where the heck was this kid?</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Hinano thought. Taking a split second to check her watch, she realized the tour was going to be over soon, and she had to find this kid, or she’d probably lose her job. She had made her way to the top of a cliff at this point, and saw the kid in question. He was small, with messy, short brown hair, he couldn’t be older than eight, and he was sitting on the edge of the cliff, crying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wh- where did they go?” The child blubbered. “They said I would be cool if I did this! Now I’m lost, and I’m scared!” Hinano moved towards the kid slowly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, it’s going to be okay! Don’t worry!” Hinano said, putting on an encouraging tone. “What’s your name?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“S-Sho,” The boy said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, Sho! I’m here now, and you don’t have to be scared anymore, alright?” Hinano said comfortingly. “Now, I need to get you back to your friends soon! You want a piggyback ride?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“S-sure,” the boy said. Hinano crouched down, and waited for the boy to get on her shoulders, before she got up with Sho on her shoulders, and started jumping from tree to tree, making her way back to the group, as this was the fastest way. She began to descend a particularly steep cliff face, and realized her mistake as she leaped from tree to rock to tree. She had no way of stopping her momentum. As she fell from a tall tree, with Sho on her back, towards the ground, her last thought before she hit her head against a tree at high speed being, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, damn. Is Sho gonna be okay?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Then, her head collided with a particularly thick branch, and she heard a scream, and a crack, and her eyes slammed shut as she passed out instantaneously.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Hinano woke up, she was laying down, which she found weird, because the last thing she remembered, she was upright. Granted, she was falling, but it was weird. Then, she felt a throbbing, horrible pain in her head, and remembered her unfortunate encounter with the tree. </span>
  <em>
    <span>God, that sucked- oh, crap! What happened to those kids!</span>
  </em>
  <span> She sat up, and realized she was in a small hospital room, with doctors in it, one of whom left the room hastily when Hinano woke. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, no. Ohh crap. Ohh no, this sucks.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Then, she heard a voice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my god! Guys! She’s finally awake!” A familiar voice shouted, and a gigantic group of people flooded into the room, with one of the doctors following behind them, shouting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey! One at a time please, she just woke up! And this room can’t even fit you all, anyways!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, sir! I don’t really think we can, um... well, we’re here now, I guess?” The same voice questioned, and this time, Hinano recognized the voice. It belonged to Rio Nakamura, and when she propped herself up, she saw, well, she assumed it was Rio speaking, but her vision was blurry, so she couldn’t really tell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rio? Is that you?” Hinano asked, blinking and rubbing her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know it,” Rio replied, smiling. “You uh... you had a pretty bad fall.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No shit, Nakamura! She fell from a cliff and slammed her head against a tree!” a different, male, voice shouted. This voice she identified as Terasaka’s.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, be nice, Terasaka! She’s been in a coma for months!” Sumire chided. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Wait, what?! </span>
  </em>
  <span>Hinano thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>A coma?! Months?! Oh, crap! </span>
  </em>
  <span>As she realized this, her eyes went wide and someone, she couldn’t tell who, turned to the group.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Does- oh, crap! Guys- she doesn’t know!” A voice who Hinano identified as Maehara’s spoke, voice raised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t- don’t know about what?” Hinano asked, her hands moving to her forehead and coming into contact with bandages, alarming one of the doctors.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please don’t touch those!” The doctor said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You, um…” Nagisa started, worried. “You’ve been in... a... coma?” He drew this word out. “I think Maehara told you that already, though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, crap,” Hinano muttered. “What- what happened to that kid? The one who, uh…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A voice that Hinano realized belonged to Toka spoke next. “He’s fine, Hinano. Don’t worry. The one you should be worrying about right now is yourself! There are </span>
  <em>
    <span>so many reasons </span>
  </em>
  <span>you should be worrying about yourself right now!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well... what </span>
  <em>
    <span>are </span>
  </em>
  <span>the reasons</span>
  <em>
    <span>?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Hinano said tiredly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um... you have a concussion?” Toka said. “And, um... you had a skull fracture when you hit the tree?” Hinano was shocked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A skull fracture?! What?!” Hinano said, exasperated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, among other things,” the doctor in the room said. “We almost got there too late. Considering the only other conscious people around were children, and that you were in the middle of the forest, you’re quite lucky that the paramedics made it in time to stop the bleeding.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I’m assuming I got a concussion, too?” Hinano asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. You suffered severe head trauma from your impact, and there was a moment when we thought you wouldn’t make it.” The doctor said, gravely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guess I’m glad I’m still alive, then!” Hinano said, putting on a smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There are other things we do need to discuss, however. If you all could leave the room, please?” The doctor said to the group of people, who Hinano assumed was class 3-E.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, alright, doc,” Rio’s voice said. With that, the people walked out of the room, leaving Hinano with the doctor, who turned back to Hinano once her friends walked out of the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now that I can properly introduce myself, I’m Koji Fujimoto, and I’ve been the main one overseeing your health these past three months,” Fujimoto spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay. Thanks for keeping me alive, first off,” Hinano said. “Second, um... since I’m conscious and all, can I, uh... leave? Wait, no. Third: What’s with my vision being all blurry and stuff?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah. I assumed you’d want to speak about that. You suffered severe head trauma, as you can presume. While most of the damage occurred in your skull, your vision certainly took a hit, and the vision you have now will most likely be permanent,” Fujimoto said gravely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh…” Hinano lamented. “So... am I never going to be able to see clearly?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, no. At least, not without glasses. But what sort of hospital would we be if we didn’t help our patients?” Fujimoto chuckled, and pulled open a drawer to his right. As he rifled through it looking for something, Hinano got worried. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, oh crap. Am I never going to be able to see properly? Am I just screwed up now? Am I- no! I need to stay positive! I may feel like crap right now, but I’m honestly lucky to be alive! At least I’m alive! Yeah!</span>
  </em>
  <span> Fujimoto found what he was looking for, and triumphantly held out a leather case, about the size of a small flashlight, and opened it. Inside was a pair of glasses. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“See! I found it!” Fujimoto exclaimed. “These, are, uh... glasses. Here.” Fujimoto handed the glasses case to Hinano. “Attached is your new perscription, and a pair of glasses. If you’d please wear those?” At Fujimoto’s request, she reached out to where the glasses were, and felt her hand clasp around a small metal frame, and two circular pieces of glass. She put the glasses on, and immediately her vision sharpened. She could see clearly beyond three inches in front of her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whoa!” Hinano bubbled. “I can finally see!” She spent her time taking in the room, from the morning sunrise filtering in through the large glass window to her left, to the cramped, yet incredibly organized interior of the hospital room, to the elderly, kind face of the doctor who had been helping her the past three months. “So, erm... since, you know, my vision is fine, and I’m conscious and all, can I, uh... go now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span> “Well, we’ll have to run some final tests, but we can have you out of the hospital before noon,” Fujimoto explained. “I’ll go tell your... incredibly large group of friends, family, and government officials, apparently, what I told you, and, well, do my best to rein them in.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good luck with that,” Hinano chortled. “Some of them can be... difficult.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I noticed,” Fujimoto said, before walking out of the room. Hinano adjusted her glasses so they fit better on her face, as her friends, family, and teachers walked in. Among the crowd, she spotted her brothers, Bitch-sensei, and Toka and Rio. Once again, uproarious clamor began, with Hinano catching phrases like “What’s with the glasses?” and “Hey, quiet down!”. She was just glad that her friends were around to help her up, and for that moment, today, she felt better than she ever did.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>* * *</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Hinano was discharged from the hospital, the first thing she did was get in her car, a 1994 Daihatsu Hijet, which she bought from a used car dealership on the cheap. Sitting in the driver’s seat, she opened her phone, and saw a message notification from her lawyer. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That’s worrying,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Hinano thought. But she opened the message anyway.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>2/09/24 11:56  [Chioko Ogawa] Ms. Kurahashi, I do not know when you’ll be receiving this, but I hope you’re well at the time you read this. You’ve recently incurred multiple reckless endangerment lawsuits due to your actions a few days ago. Due to your injuries and the fact that you’re currently in a coma, I predict you won’t be healthy enough to represent yourself in court. I will do my best to represent you in court, and I hope you feel better.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The message ended there, and Hinano began to panic. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, oh god. Oh, crap. Oh, no, please, please tell me there’s more, please, please.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Hinano frantically searched for another part to the message, which she found, and read quickly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>2/17/24 5:22 [Chioko Ogawa] Hello, Ms. Kurahashi. I do quite hope you’re well. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I was unable to abate the severity of the lawsuits you incurred. In total, the collective sum of the money owed totaled to around 23 million yen. I understand you may not have wished for me to do this, but, frankly, there were no other options. I had to settle the </span>
  <em>
    <span>twenty</span>
  </em>
  <span> different lawsuits.</span>
</p><p> </p><p><span>Hinano was freaking out. </span><em><span>Twenty-three </span></em><b><em>million?!</em></b> <em><span>Oh, shit! That was all the money I </span></em><b><em>had!</em></b><em><span> Oh, shit! Well, at least my business is still intact! Yeah!</span></em><span> Then she read the last part of the message.</span></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>2/17/24 5:22 [Chioko Ogawa] As well, due to these lawsuits, we were forced to close down the touring business. I’m very, incredibly sorry that you have to wake up to this, but I figured you’d at least appreciate knowing the full extent of the situation. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now, Hinano just balled up in her car seat. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, god. No, no, no, no, no, no. I worked so hard. I worked so hard, I worked so hard and then I was stupid and I ruined it all. I ruined everything, oh god.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Tears started to fall from her eyes as she cried. She cried for a solid ten minutes, just sitting in the parking lot, in her car, crying, the sun glaring overhead, magnifying through the glass and practically baking her. Eventually, she started to cough. It was a dry cough, and it jarred her out of her crying. She wiped her eyes on her arm, and stared at the sun. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Okay. Okay. Okay. Think. Think. Think. Think. Think. This is just a fresh start. It’s just a fresh start. I’m just starting over, from square one. Alright. First thing. Get home. I just gotta get home. Then I can make a list of what I need to do next.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She fumbled in her pants pocket for her car keys, and put the key in the ignition, turning it with a determined look on her face. She pulled out of the parking lot, gripping the steering wheel tightly. Driving down the street, she turned on the radio to some pop music, and bobbed her head along with the music as she drove. Eventually, she reached her apartment building, and parked. As she walked into the lobby, the clerk on front desk duty got her attention.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hinano Kurahashi?” The clerk asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, that’s me,” Hinano replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re three months behind on your rent, and we have no choice but to evict you. Pack up your stuff and be gone by nine PM tonight. Thank you.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Are you joking me right now?! Are you seriously kidding me? Is this some prank? Am I in some fanfiction where the author is ruining my life? Wait, what the heck? I don’t think like that, Fuwa does! </span>
  </em>
  <span>Hinano shook her head, before burying her face in her hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you fucking serious?!” Hinano screamed, before realizing she was in public, and put on a fake smile. “Sorry, I’ll, uh... get packing.” And she left the room hurriedly, running down the hall to her apartment room. She threw open the door after unlocking it, and leaped onto the bed, face planting. Turning her head miserably, she checked the clock on her nightstand. </span>
  <em>
    <span>1:00 PM. Okay,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Hinano thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That at least gives me a few hours to get everything in my truck. Where am I gonna put it, though?</span>
  </em>
  <span> That was the main thing on Hinano’s mind. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Where am I going to hang my metaphorical hat? </span>
  </em>
  <span>She threw herself off her bed, got up from the floor, and started to organize her stuff. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>First came the bathroom, in there was the small stuff, the stuff she could carry by hand to her truck. She grabbed a grocery bag sitting on the floor of the kitchen, that was where the small stuff would go, the soaps and shampoos and all that. She set that bag on the passenger seat of her car. Then came the kitchen. Hinano figured that she didn’t really need to keep all the perishables in the bed of her truck; the landlord would get some people to throw that all out. Same with the stuff in the pantry- </span>
  <em>
    <span>Wait, I don’t need to take this stuff,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Hinano thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>There’s probably gonna be utensils and the like wherever I move in. I don’t need to keep these. </span>
  </em>
  <span>And then, she moved to her bedroom. She’d have to move her bed and dresser and stuff, which would most likely take the most of the time she had left. If she did it herself, that was. So, she opted to call a friend of hers, who could probably help with the heavy lifting. She pulled out her phone, and dialed Terasaka’s number.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Terasaka?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Kurahashi. What’s up?” Terasaka’s voice said on the other side of the phone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, um... could you do me a favor? I need you to help me move some stuff,” Hinano asked. “Just, like, two or three things.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure. What’s your address?” Terasaka asked. “I’m on the side of the road right now, so uh... it’ll be a bit, but I can get over there.” Hinano gave her address, thanked Terasaka, and hung up. Then, as she waited, she moved the bag with the stuff from her bathroom to her passenger side seat, and sat in the driver’s seat, waiting for Terasaka. About twenty minutes later, Hinano saw a car she assumed was Terasaka’s pull into the lot of the apartment building. Then, she saw him get out of the car and look around. Hinano got out of her truck and walked over to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, uh... I’ll show you what I need help with moving.” And with that, Hinano and Terasaka walked to the former’s apartment, through the living room. “Oh, crap. Right. There may be, uh... more stuff that I honestly forgot to tell you about.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really? Eh, whatever,” Terasaka muttered. “Not like I’ve really got anything much to do today, considerin’ you’re alive and kickin’ and all.” The two then moved Hinano’s more heavy items into the bed of her truck, in silence, before Terasaka spoke. “You movin’? Seems like a bad time, you just waking up and all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No! Just, um…” Hinano struggled to come up with an excuse, before deciding on honesty. “I kinda… got... evicted?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit,” Terasaka muttered. “What for?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fell behind on my rent, due to, you know, the whole coma thing,” Hinano said, as she pushed the couch, the last thing that she had to move, into the bed of the truck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, sucks to hear that. If you need, I’m sure the class’d be fine with helping ya out.” Terasaka suggested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No! It’s fine!” Hinano said, waving her hands. “I- uh... I’m good. Just gotta find somewhere to live and all that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, good luck with that. We, uh... done here?” Terasaka said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yep. Thanks so much for that, I totally owe you one,” Hinano said cheerfully, as she threw a tarp over the bed of the truck, and tied it down so her possessions wouldn’t fly away. Terasaka and Hinano said their goodbyes, and he left the apartment building. “Okay, I’m... I guess I’m living out of my car now,” Hinano said to herself. She told the clerk at the front desk that she was leaving, then got in her car, turning the key, and activating the engine. Pulling out of the parking lot, she got on the main road, thinking. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Okay, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Hinano thought. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I should at least get some food or something. And a job. That’s most important. I need a job. </span>
  </em>
  <span>As Hinano drove around, she looked for buildings with notices for job openings. She passed by various storefronts, a furniture store, a restaurant, a coffee shop, it was just opening, and- </span>
  <em>
    <span>wait, maybe I can do an interview there! If it’s just opening and all! </span>
  </em>
  <span>Hinano slammed on the brakes of her car, lurching forward. A few cars honked at her from behind, but she ignored them, pulling into the parking lot of the coffee shop as the April sun gleamed overhead, incinerating everything in sight. Metaphorically, of course. Wiping some sweat off her brow, Hinano made her way to the front door, looking at the sign above the establishment for some sort of name. She found a small, thin sign made of neon lettering, which read, “Cold Winter Coffee Bar”. Hinano chuckled as she walked through the door, since the name was the opposite of the weather outside. Looking around, she thought it was a nice place. She heard a familiar voice speak.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Hinano! You’re up already?” Fuwa asked, from behind the counter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yep. Wait, you work here?” Hinano replied, staring in surprise. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh huh!” Hinano said. “What’s good here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The only thing I’ve ever had here is then uh… the one thing I order, so I’m sure that’s good. Not sure about anything else, though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll get that, then,” Hinano said, as she put the appropriate amount of money on the counter, as Fuwa shouted to one of her co-workers to make a... something with twenty shots of espresso. She didn’t really know coffee terms, but the fact that she heard the term ‘twenty espresso shots’ worried her. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Is this what she drinks on a daily basis?!</span>
  </em>
  <span> “Could we, uh... could we catch up after your work is over?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure! Sounds great! It’s gonna be, um... a few hours. You want me to text you when my shift is over? I signed up for some overtime tonight. I should be done at about ten-thirty, I think.” Fuwa said to Hinano, who was sat at a table near a space heater in the corner of the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds good! Oh! Also, um... one more thing? Is there, erm... a job opening? Because I kinda, um... need one,” Hinano trailed off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought you, uh... don’t you have the nature tour thing?” Fuwa questioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not… really?” Hinano said slowly. “I kinda... don’t have that anymore?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why not?” Fuwa asked, and at that moment Hinano realized that nobody save for her and her lawyer knew about </span>
  <em>
    <span>why</span>
  </em>
  <span> she was in the hospital, only that she was in the hospital with extreme head trauma.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um... I... I’ll explain it later, okay?” Hinano said, with all the veracity of, well, a liar.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure! About the job application, though. We need a person for the weekday shift from eleven to five, so there’s a spot open. No prior experience needed! I’ll help you out,” Fuwa said. “Here’s your coffee, by the way. Twenty shots of espresso and 8 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What... I don’t know anything about coffee making, but I’m pretty sure you don’t... put heavy whipping cream in coffee?” Hinano said, unsure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just go with it,” Fuwa said. “The author doesn’t know anything about coffee, either.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why do you always say that shit?! Nobody ever has a clue what you mean!” a woman in the same uniform as Fuwa shouted at Fuwa from behind the counter as she poured coffee for another customer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As I said to my friend here! Just go with it! You should follow her example, Tamura!” Fuwa retorted, chuckling. Hinano nursed the hot cup of coffee for a bit, before standing up and leaning on the large glass pastry case built into the counter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m gonna drink this coffee now. If I pass out, I’m suing you,” Hinano said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, that isn’t gonna happen!” Fuwa laughed, as Hinano took her first sip of the coffee, and immediately spit it out on the counter. “Oh, crap. I, uh... damn. I gotta clean that now, and she rushed to the back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, you two are friends?” the woman who Fuwa had called Tamura said, turning to face Hinano.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah! We’ve been friends since middle school! We met in, um... third year, I think?” Hinano said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you two went to Kunugigaoka, right?” Tamura asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wh- uh, yeah. How’d you know what middle school I went to?” Hinano said, perturbed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She mentioned going to Kunugigaoka a bit back,” Tamura said. “So, I figured.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Understood. Your name is, erm... Tamura, correct?” Hinano asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah! Tamura Katsuzou,” Tamura smirked. “Anyways, I’ll leave ya be now.” At that point, Fuwa returned from the back with some glass cleaner and a rag.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How do you like the coffee?” Fuwa inquired.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s kinda gross. I don’t get why you like this,” Hinano groused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, if my taste in coffee is too unique for you, I’ll just-” and Fuwa swiped at the coffee in Hinano’s hand, but Hinano jumped back preemptively, clutching the coffee in her arms. “Hey!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I bought it, I’m gonna drink more of it and see why the heck you like it,” Hinano declared. “I’ll just wait outside for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For nine straight hours?” Fuwa asked incredulously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe? I’m not sure yet.” And Hinano walked outside.</span>
</p>
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